How are you contributing to meeting the objectives of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

Do you know the 17 goals of the UN 2030 AGENDA for Sustainable Development? where many initiatives are taken into account including: caring for the planet and improving the lives and prospects of people around the world.

In 2015, world leaders adopted a set of global goals to eradicate poverty, protect the Earth and ensure prosperity for all as part of a sustainable development roadmap.

Each objective has specific goals that must be achieved within a period of 15 years, that is, until 2030.

To achieve these purposes, we all have to do our part: governments, the private sector, civil society. We have been working with a vision in tune with these objectives for more than 10 years, with reforestation, research and environmental education projects. Interestingly, long before this Sustainable Development Agenda was established.

We want to share with you how our projects contribute to achieving two of these objectives:

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Sustainable tourism has the capacity to improve urban infrastructure and universal accessibility, to promote the regeneration of decaying areas and to preserve cultural and natural heritage, assets on which tourism depends.

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects

Climate change is affecting every country on every continent. It is disrupting national economies and affecting lives. Within this objective, we are in tune with the following goal:

13.3 Enhance education, awareness, and human and institutional capacity for climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning

We educate the youth of Manta in environmental care. Aiming for sustainable cities

We have been working together with the academy, NGOs and the public sector, we have developed studies that allow us to know the composition of the dry forest in Manabí-Ecuador, its benefits for the planet and how to protect this ecosystem that has been seriously threatened by deforestation.

Being very honest, deforestation is the reason that a large part of our territory is affected by climate change. Ignorance about the benefits provided by our forests, especially the dry forest (which has been studied very little), has led to the deforestation of large areas of this ecosystem.

For this reason, we have developed responsible reforestation projects that allow us to return to nature what it has given us and that belongs to it by right.

Where, once the reforestation has been carried out, the georeferencing and monitoring of these trees continues. Likewise, all the studies we have carried out are to have reliable support that allows us to restore and protect these ecosystems.

Once the studies are in hand, we address the citizens, the community members and the young people, educating by sharing our knowledge and experiences with a specific purpose, to raise awareness in the care of dry forests, their flora and fauna.

Palo Santo, The Sacred wood that soothes your soul

A beautiful experience that arose on this path is that we had the opportunity to talk with the artisans who take advantage of Palo Santo as a livelihood.

Since, on many occasions, these people, due to ignorance, did not carry out a sustainable practice in obtaining this wood, given that on occasions they deforested to plant corn (short-cycle cultivation), or introduced cattle to graze in the forest, and illegally settled on these lands; leaving the ecosystem seriously damaged.

By sharing our studies and how we can make sustainable use of Palo Santo, they implemented good practices and today, they are the caretakers of the forest, since they learned that the only way to continue obtaining Palo Santo is by protecting its ecosystem.

As data, one of our studies highlights the characteristic of dry forests for their ability to store carbon, something very important, since it helps reduce temperatures caused by global warming.

If you want to learn more about our research, I invite you to read our articles here.

On our way to raise awareness and educate, we have not stayed in just one area, since 2010 we have been actively working on an environmental awareness and education project called ECOPLAYAS #LlévateTuBasura, where we focus on educating people who visit the beaches to take care of this wonderful ecosystem.

In order to create citizen awareness in the correct management of solid waste generated by each person when they visit and enjoy our beaches; and any public recreation area.

By making the population an active part in the protection and sustainable development of the beaches, we are empowering them to manage their garbage.

We collaborate to have healthy natural recreational areas. By effectively managing solid waste, we all win!

Goal 15: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, Halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss

The sustainable order of forests and stop deforestation. It is urgent to take action to reduce the loss of natural habitats and biodiversity, which are part of the common heritage of humanity. We are in affinity with the following goal:

15.2 Promote the sustainable management of all types of forests, end deforestation, restore degraded forests and increase afforestation and reforestation globally

From our trench, we are dedicated to the protection and restoration of the dry forest, we are aware that anthropogenic activities, as we explained in previous paragraphs, are the real threat to the dry forest ecosystem.

This is why we want to develop and implement methodologies for the restoration of dry forests. Since 2015 we have carried out reforestation sessions that have currently allowed us to reach the figure of 11,500 reforested trees.

Together with the University, schools, groups and public organizations we have carried out several reforestations in different forests in the province of Manabí, taking care of these trees and monitoring their growth.

None of this is possible without proper planning, which is why we have our pilot plan, the Forest and Protective Vegetation (BVP) "ElArtesan-EcuadorianHands", a tropical dry forest with an area of ​​50 hectares, located in Joa-Jipijapa. If you like to know all the way traveled to achieve this sum of planted trees, you can read here.

Our goal is to achieve a healthy and protected planet, where its natural resources are used sustainably. We know that carrying out environmental remediation actions are necessary, however, educating and raising awareness among citizens to be part of these ideals is more effective.

Only in this way can we reduce remediation activities and change them for prevention and environmental care actions. So let's move on!

If you want to be part of the change, you must start consuming products of sustainable origin. Make a difference!

The sustainable development goals